BOM Challenge #3

Wow, I have completed the next challenge in the Book of Me Challenge over at Tracy's and it is not too late for you to enter. For this challenge it had to be about the day we were born.

I really had fun doing this and I think it got my mom thinking too about how she was feeling etc. on that day back in 1962.

Here is my layout:

The journalling on the left page reads:

“On Friday 15 June 1962 at 08h00, Michelle Frances entered this world”
said proud and happy parents, Lu and Laura Engler.

Birth weight: 7lbs (3.18kg) Length: 20inches (53 cm) Hair colour: brown
Head circumference: 13½inches (33.2cm) Eyes: blue then turned green

My mom had a good pregnancy and carried me mostly in the front. She was often complimented on how good she looked whilst pregnant with me. My dad took her to “Mother’s Hospital” in Greyville on the evening of 14 June 1962 and she was in labour for 10 hours before I was born the next morning. My mom had a natural birth, I was born on my due date and did not have any Jaundice. As soon as my dad had been told that I was born, he came to the hospital and once he saw that my mom and I were okay, expressed his joy at my birth. At birth I looked a lot like my dad’s mom “Granny Engler” but as I got older there were strong resemblances of my mom when she was a little girl. My mom told me that when she was a little girl she loved looking after other people’s babies and helping to dress and feed them and when I was born, she was so excited that she now had her own baby to look after. I was a very easy baby and slept through from 6pm – 6am from 7 weeks. I hardly ever cried and could be left in my pram or cot for ages and my “Granny Farquharson’s” friends often used to comment to my mom on what a good baby I was. I was always a very healthy and dainty baby. When I got my teeth they came through very easily with no vomiting, crying or upset stomachs. My mom told me that when I was 3¾ months she came to take me out of my cot and I had a tooth! I was breastfed for 9 months whereafter I decided I didn’t want to be breastfed anymore and my mom taught me to drink from a cup.

The journalling on the right hand page reads:

On this day …


In the Gregorian calendar, the 15 June is the 166th day of the year (167th in a leap year)

South Africa passed a bill setting the death penalty for many crimes

Buddy Nobles ran a world record marathon in a time of 2h14:28

The Israeli premier, David Ben-Gurian resigned

WWUP TV channel 10 in Saut Ste Marie, MI (CBS) started broadcasting

The Beatles did their 2nd BBC performance, performing “Ask me why”, “Besame Mucho” and “A picture of you”

China had a brief conflict with India over a disputed Himalaya border

In Lincoln, 3 people were killed and 50 injured when a train from Kings Cross to Edinburgh derailed.

These are the tags:

My discharge card

The things new moms needed to take to hospital

One of the congratulations cards my mom and dad received

Another card

A few more cards

Two telegrams

I really had fun looking up the information to see what happened on that day back in 1962 and I hope my mom enjoyed giving me the information I needed - thanks mom.

Happy challenger signing off ...

I'm a "Pommy Mommy"

At 12h45 on Friday, 1 August 2008 I was officially sworn in as a British Citizen. I was able to do this as my mom was born in Scotland and I was born born between 1961 and 1983. The next step is to apply for my British Passport. Here I am holding my official certificate of citizenship:

South African Brit signing off ...

Christening of Scrap Book Table

On Saturday Kathy, Rayna and Shelley came round to help me christen my new oak scrapbook table. It was well and truly christened with Kathy arriving at 09h00, Rayna a bit later and Shelley at about 10h00 as she had to collect our Breyani that her friend Glenda made for us. A lot of talking, getting ideas and of course scrapping took place. Kathy was the most efficient and finished 2 double page layouts (she had done all the cutting beforehand). Shelley, Rayna and i also finished our layouts. Lunch time we had a yummy chicken breyani with salad (made by Kathy) with fruit juice and finished off with a delicious hot sticky chocolate pudding with cream. While I was trying to shake the cream Rayna offered to do it for a while as it seemed to be taking a long time to thicken, and while she was shaking, happened to read the container where it clearly stated that it "is not suitable for wipping"!!!

Here is my layout I created (with some advise from Rayna and Shelley) and finished:

These other two layouts I also finished (just some finishing touches and putting in the enlargements) and they can be purchased from Desire's Online Shoppe - Doing Life . They are great kits (seeing as I am in them!!) and I had a lot of fun putting them together. Thanks Desire for the inspiration!

A great day was had by all.

In the evening, Dereck and I together with Lesley, Alex, Janine, Nicholas and a friend of ours Dave, went to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Barnyard Theatre. We bought pizzas for supper and were treated to a home made chocolate cake (from Dave) - boy was it yummy!!! What a great show. We bought some water pistols and had great fun shooting the patrons!!

Today, Sunday was spent doing some washing, updating some albums and general updating of blogs, and tidying up.

This evening I just plan watching TV.

Relaxed signing off ....

Blogging Award

I have been given the "Blogging Forever Friend" award by Desire do visit her blog and see her wonderful creations. Thank you so much Desire, I am honoured and proud to have received this award from you. The following rules apply to this award:

1. Only 5 people are allowed to receive this award

2. 4 of them followers of your blog.

3. One has to be new to your blog and live in another part of the world.

4. You must link back to who ever gave you the award.

I pick the following people to receive this award from me, Leanne, Jose (who recently visited my blog - but do check out hers it is great), Desire, Sophia do visit their blogs and see their creations and the 5th one is Andrea, who is a very talented scrapper and an ex South African, now residing in Linfield, England. She was involved in SA Scrap Kits and I recently attended her 2 day scrap convention - it was awesome.

Award winner signing off ...

Blog Candy at Bev's Site

Do you want to get your hands on some 'Blog Candy'? Well then just pop over to 'All The Things I Love' and leave a comment on the 'Blog Candy Time' entry and post a link on your blog to 'All the Things I Love'. This is what you stand to win. The winner is drawn on 9 August 2008 (Women's Day here in South Africa). So, what are you waiting for, get on over and leave your comment ...
Bev has made amazing card creations too!

Crossed fingers signing off ....

BOM Challenge #2

Herewith the layout I did for the BOM challenge #2:

The journalling reads:

"The French meaning of "Michelle" is "Gift from God", and is the feminine form of Michael. The Hebrew meaning is "Close to God" and "Who is like God?" It was a popular name when first used in the 1940's and made even more so by the Beatles' famous song "Michelle" in the 1970's (I love the Beatles music by the way!!) My second name "Frances" is from French origin and means "Free".

How did my parents decide on my name?

Well, they liked the name "Michael" and I was a girl, so was named "Michelle". In the 1960's it was quite a unique name.

Do I like my name?

Yes. Although while at shool I did not like my second name as a girl in my class had the same name and she was horrible. It was only in later years when I found out that Princess Diana's second name was Frances that I was happy with it.

If I could change my name what would it be?

Michelle. I am a Michelle so I just can't change my name!!"

I must say I had fun investigating and creating this layout.

Just Michelle signing off ...

Craft Room Table

I have just been reminded that I have not posted a picture of my new table in my craft room. So here it is as well as a picture of my cupboard all nicely sorted and things stacked away:

Happy crafter signing off ...

Book of Me Challenge #1 and some Beading

To those of you doing the Book of Me Challenge with Tracy here is my take on the first challenge. I certainly had a lot of fun putting it together and am busy working on Challenge #2. Sorry for the long wait:

There is still time for you to join, so come along and join us create a memory for future generations.

I was rather busy yesterday as my friend Rayna's daughter who runs the the coffee shop at Stoneage in Pinetown arranged a beading morning where Rayna, Shelley, Kathy and I made 2 cute dragonfly key rings. We were also treated to a "Royal Tea" with lots of yummy things to eat. I really had a lot of fun making them:

No, Desire, I will not be taking up beading !! I will leave those wonderful creations for you to make, although I might make a few keyrings as they are quick and really easy.

After the beading, Shelley and I went to Mount Edgecombe to check out the Scrap 4 Africa shop, followed by a trip to Imagine That at the Crescent. This was rather exhausting work and we stopped by the Wimpy for a double thick milkshakes, then off to do some grocery shopping and then home.

Dereck's friend was playing in the "School of Rock, SA" musical at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, so we arranged with Janine and Nicholas to join us and we went to watch the show. It was brilliant and very well done by a selection of school children. It was the Unilever young actors production that is held every year. The children come from various schools round KZN.

Well, I must go now as I have my next BOM Challenge to get on with.

BOM challenger signing off ....

Anita Francis Ramsay (Papi)

Yes, I know that I have not blogged in ages, but things have really been hectic. I have changed jobs, been scrapping a bit and the sad news is that my mother-in-law passed away yesterday.

She had battled with Cancer for a couple of years and she died peacefully on 10 July 2008 at 16h20 at her flat. She was fortunate that Lesley, her daughter, was able to live with her and helped take care of her up until her passing. To all her grandchildren she was fondly know as "Papi".

09-01-1931 to 10-07-2008

Rest in peace "Papi", you will be missed by all.

To all our friends who have sent messages of condolences and flowers - thank you to all, it means a lot to Dereck, myself and the family.

In mourning signing off ...

Craft Room Makeover

The big reveal is finally here! My cupboards were put in on Wednesday and while Leanne was out with her aunt Liesel, I spent the day packing my cupboards and clearing out Dereck's office, which I had been using as my scrapping space. The top two pictures were where the original cupboards used to be and the cupboards are now on the wall opposite and are the whole length of the wall with a corner cupboard for easy access to my scrapping supplies!! I have labelled all my containers so that anyone looking for anything will see where things are - eg christmas decorations, general stationery, disney stamps, word stamps etc etc.

I have ordered my table and once it is received, I will post so that you can see what it looks like.

Happy scrapper signing off ...

General Update

Well, the floor of my craft room has been sanded and they finished today with the varnishing. I will take some pictures this week-end and let you see the next step. Really looks great.

I got some happy mail today. On the Making Memories for You site that I chat on, they had a crop and I won some paper. It was sent to Sophia with something she got and I collected it today. Here are the papers - they are really lovely and not something I have seen here in SA:

I have also been doing a bit of scrapping of late and this particular layout is from a kit that I purchased from Desire's online shoppe. I changed some of the papers and used the same kit layout. I am very pleased with the end result. This is a page of when Sharon, Reg, Dereck an I went to Johannesburg last year to walk in a 12/24 hour circuit walk. We had to walk 2 km round a school and had to achieve at least 60km in the 12 hours to qualify. The event started at 5pm and by 11pm I was so tired, that I went to have a lie down and fell asleep. When I woke up I realised that I would not be able to achieve the required distance, so went back to sleep!!! Sharon and Reg did the required and more!! Here is the layout:

These are a few more that I have completed for Grant's album:

Scrappywalker signing off ...

Spare Room Makeover!

We have a spare room in our house, which is where I normally do my scrapping, sewing, card making and sometimes where a guest would sleep when they came to visit. Now that Leanne has left home, her room is available as a spare room and I decided that I was going to give the original spare room a make over. So, to begin with I wanted the carpets lifted as we have parke flooring underneath and we are having that sanded and varnished. Then I wanted the cupboards out and replaced in a different position in the room. The walls had to be repainted as they were a different colour behind the cupboards.

So this week-end has been spent emptying the cupboards, taking out my desk and sewing cabinet, taking down the cupboards, lifting the carpet and painting the walls. I still need to do some more painting as the new paint I got is slightly darker than what is currently on the wall, and although Dereck and Grant say you can't really notice it, being me, I can. Here are some of the before pictures:

I will carry on tomorrow and finish the painting, once I get home from work.

Keep a lookout for updates as the room progresses.

Paintergirl signing off ...

Grant Graduates

Wednesday, 2 April 2008 was a very proud moment for Dereck and I - Grant was graduating! The ceremony was held at the Jewish Club in Durban and we got there nice and early and got seats 3 rows from the front. Grant passed his IT Programming Diploma with Distinction. This is also a milestone in my life as my "baby" is now all grown up and working!! Bruce Fordyce was the guest speaker and gave a wonderfully humorous talk. Grant even commented on his humour.

Well done Grant we are all very proud of you.

Proud graduate's mom signing off ...

Ubizane Zululand Tree Lodge update 2

We saw quite a few birds, but obviously could not get pictures of them all. Here are a few I managed to get a picture of:

The first one is a type of swallow, the second a red backed shrike, the third a large owl and the fourth a European Roller.

We also saw quite a few animals and below are pictures of them. These were a combination of the animals seen at this lodge as well as the Hluhluwe Reserve which we went to on the Sunday morning:

There were quite a few monkeys around and they were really rather cheeky. They came on to the tables at breakfast and were stealing the sugar and the yoghurts behind the counter!! These are pictures I took on Saturday morning after we had breakfast and were just lazying in our room deciding what to do:We went for a drive into Hluhluwe, but there was really nothing there - just extremely busy with shoppers on a Saturday. We took a drive to see where the Hluhluwe Game Reserve was and then went back to our tree house. I wandered around taking pictures of the buck that were roaming under our tree house and just watched them, then spent quite a while just sitting back enjoying the surroundings and reading a book that I had brought along. At 4pm we went for another game drive, but not before a monkey sneaked into our room and helped itself to all our sugar (second time as they came in the day before and stole it as well):

On Sunday we got up at 05h30 to leave at 6am to go to the Hluhluwe Game Reserve. This was really great and we were hoping to see lion, but that was not to be. We saw quite a few animals (pictures above) which was great. The rhino we saw had a young one with him and he didn't like the fact that the game vehicle was so close and he kept coming towards us. Once the baby had walked into the bush, then the daddy rhino walked away!!

Once we got back, we had breakfast and then started packing up our things. While Dereck was taking a shower I was just chilling on the bed staring out the door and something caught my eye in the tree. I quickly put my zoom lens on the camera and took pictures so that I could see what it was - horrors of horrors it was a snake!! But having had first hand exprience with one in my house a while ago, I recognised it as a Varigated Bush Snake and thankfully it was in a tree not so close to us. Thankfully we were leaving that morning, otherwise I would have wondered where the snake was!!
We really had a great relaxing time. The food was great and we had perfect weather and it was just what we both needed.

Bushed out signing off ...

Ubizane Zululand Tree Lodge

I recently won a week-end away at this wonderful lodge and Dereck and I went there on 28 February 2008 (yes, I know that this is very late to blog, but better late than never - he he!)

We left at about 12h30 on the Friday and arrived at the Lodge at about 3h30 with the beating of drums welcoming us. We were shown our tree lodge which was really great and then we met our guide for the first of our game drives. This man was a bird lover and certainly knew his birds.

See next post for the rest of the update ...